One embodiment is directed to a baseband controller for use with a plurality of radio points to provide wireless service to user equipment (UE) using a wireless interface. The baseband controller makes use of a hybrid virtualized architecture comprising special-purpose hardware configured to implement at least some of the LAYER-1 functions for the wireless interface and a virtual platform configured to implement some of the functions for the wireless interface. Such a baseband controller can be used in dual connectivity radio access networks.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
4. The baseband controller of claim 3, wherein the CU-CP and CU-UP can be scaled independently of each other.
5. The baseband controller of claim 2, wherein the DU is partitioned into a Distributed Unit-Control Plane part (DU-CP) and a Distributed Unit-User Plane part (DU-UP).
6. The baseband controller of claim 5, wherein the DU-CP and DU-UP can be scaled independently of each other.
8. The baseband controller of claim 5, wherein the DU-UP is implemented by the special-purpose hardware.
9. The baseband controller of claim 5, wherein the DU-CP is implemented by the special-purpose hardware.
10. The baseband controller of claim 5, wherein the DU-CP is implemented by the virtual platform.
11. The baseband controller of claim 1, wherein the virtual platform comprises at least one of a generic server and an accelerated server, the accelerated server comprises one or more hardware acceleration units.
13. The baseband controller of claim 12, wherein the master base station and the secondary base station both server a common radio point, the common radio point comprising a multi-carrier radio point.
14. The baseband controller of claim 12, wherein the core network comprises one of an evolved packet core (EPC) core network and a next generation core (NGC) core network.
18. The baseband controller of claim 12, wherein the master base station is configured to use a first radio access technology (RAT) to wirelessly communicate with user equipment and the secondary base station is configured to use a second RAT to wirelessly communicate with user equipment, wherein the first RAT differs from the second RAT.
19. The baseband controller of claim 18, wherein the first RAT comprises an LTE RAT and the second RAT comprises a 5G RAT.
20. The baseband controller of claim 12, wherein the master base station is configured to use a first radio access technology (RAT) to wirelessly communicate with user equipment and the secondary base station is configured to use a second RAT to wirelessly communicate with user equipment, wherein the first RAT is the same as the second RAT.
21. The baseband controller of claim 20, wherein the first RAT and second RAT both comprise an LTE RAT.
23. The baseband controller of claim 1, wherein a Distributed Unit (DU) is at least partially implemented using the special-purpose hardware and is communicatively coupled via an Ethernet network to a Central Unit (CU) that is implemented using the virtual platform.
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March 5, 2020
December 13, 2022
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